فصلنامه مدیریت توسعه فناوری
سال هشتم شماره 1 (بهار 1399)

The various factors affecting the firm’s innovation performance are strongly influenced by the contextual factors. Considering the economic and strategic importance of the Advanced Materials Sector in Iran, this paper attempts to model the factors influencing the innovation performance of the firms in this sector. For this purpose, a survey was carried out with participation of 169 companies as a statistical sample and the obtained data were modeled by structural equations modeling through the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. The findings showed that although both internal and external determinants have a meaningful effect on the firm’s innovation performance, the effect of external determinants is higher. In addition, it was revealed that among the external determinants, characteristics of the business environment, characteristics of the science and technology environment and characteristics of the sector, respectively, have the greatest impact on firm innovation performance. Also, among the internal determinants, organizational competencies, strategic characteristics, and demographic characteristics of the firm have the most impact on the firm’s innovation performance. As the external determinants are mostly out of the control of the firms and their managers, and are more influenced by government policies, the high impact of these factors confirms the important role of the policymakers. The policy makers are able to have a significant impact on the firm’s innovation performance by designing and implementing effective policies.

Economic prosperity depends on knowledge-based development, and therefore the establishment of knowledge-based companies (KBCs) has received serious attention. The purpose of this study is to identify and explain the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the process of the establishment of KBCs by the faculty members of the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST). The data gathering instruments of this study were in-depth and semi-structured interviews and the qualitative content analysis technique was used to analyze the extracted data. The statistical population consisted of 23 faculty members of IROST who were founders of KBCs which were selected by purposeful sampling. The triangulation techniques, including the use of confirmatory sources, researchers and various methods were used to determine validity during the data collection and analysis process. Also, the guidance of the interview flow, the creation of a structured process for conducting and interpreting the interviews and the formation of a specialized committee were used to confirm the reliability. The findings were presented in four main themes (concepts) including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and 46 sub-themes (codes). The results of the qualitative content analysis showed 13 strengths, 14 weaknesses, 9 opportunities and 10 threats in the process of establishment of KBCs by the faculty members of IROST which can be used in the development of strategies and action plans for the prosperity and development of KBCs.

Complex products and systems (CoPS) have a vital role in the development process of countries, especially in emerging economies. One of the most important components affecting the success of production and development projects of complex products and systems is the ability in knowledge integration. This capability directly influences the country's innovation capability and enables timely response to changes in the dynamic global environment. The aim of this study is to typology of the factors affecting knowledge integration in the production and development projects of these products. For this purpose, a qualitative thematic analysis research method has been used for data analysis and 235 basic themes, 22 organizing themes and finally 4 global themes have been extracted from the literature review and the opinions of Iranian Aviation Industry experts. The research findings demonstrate that the success of knowledge integration of complex products and systems depends on four categories of contextual factors including environmental factors, product and technology specifications, organizational requirements and contexts, and knowledge development strategy, network structure and processes. The results also indicate that various solutions to the problem of complex product design and development require deep consideration of the environmental factors including institutional components and government.

In recent years, public procurement of innovation as a demand policy has become more of a concern in many countries, especially in European Union. Although pre-commercial procurement as a means of financing technological projects has a special place in the early stages of the technology development, it has faced both theoretical (whether identified as a supply or demand-side innovation policy) and practical challenges. The analysis of this policy tool in Iran is considered from the perspective of how it can stimulate technology in the range of supply and demand side. Due to the sustainability and continuity of the implementation of this policy at the Center for National Macro Technology Projects (under Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology), the projects of this center have been studied. To do this, the qualitative research method of multiple-case studies, based on the classification of the center's projects, was conducted. The results of this study show that using this policy has changed from a tool for encouraging the supply side based on basic technologies in long-term projects to demand-side policy with the basic role of buyers in strategic technology.

One of the main strategies for the transition to the entrepreneurial university is the establishment of technology transfer offices (TTOs) which enhance the interaction between university, industry, and society and therefore improve the economic and social conditions of society by identifying the needs of the market and society and defining demand-driven research projects in the universities. Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) is one of the leading universities of Iran which intends to complete the transition to an entrepreneurial university as its third mission. So, this research was conducted to identify the rationales, objectives, challenges and functions of the technology transfer office of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, through applying a qualitative approach and case study strategy. Analyzing the data collected from a group interview (focus group) with 10 academic experts through thematic analysis method has led to the identification of 46 basic themes and 44 organizing themes that have been gathered around four global themes, namely, rationalities, challenges, goals, and functions.

Evidence shows that the commercialization and market entry by start-up companies are not very promising. The complexity and importance of this issue notably increases in the case of advanced technologies that have unique features such as high speed of knowledge production, short life cycle of technology and short distance from research time to product launch. This study is aimed to determine startup knowledge-based companys' requirements to enter the market. This study adopts a practical and descriptive-survey approach and uses the information collected through distribution of questionnaires among 86 successful ICT companies (located in Tehran Science and Technology Park, Modares Science and Technology Park and Shahid Beheshti University Technology Incubator). Further, in order to investigate the dimensions of the studied variables and construct validity, the confirmatory factor analysis and to test the research hypotheses the Structural Equation Modelling was used.  According to the research results, the requirements for successful entry of these companies into the market are organizational dimensions, environmental and individual factors, respectively. Also, component rankings show that in organizational dimension, components of strategic capabilities, marketing and sales capability and human resources are of high importance; in environmental dimention, supportive components, social, economic, political and technological factors are more significant; and in individual dimension, the manager's individual mentality, individual personality and interpersonal character are among the most important components.